


An Almond Fueled War Against The Prospect of Eternal High School

by jamanddounts



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: Comedy, Exams, Happy Ending, One Shot, Students, Studying, its another self indulgent fic, trigger and i7 all appear at least once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25328545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamanddounts/pseuds/jamanddounts
Summary: “All of the topics covered today will be on your test next week. Oh, and, anyone who gets below 80 in any of them will have to take remedial classes or possibly retake the year.”There's not much that Tamaki fears, but exams were number one on his list. Would he be able to raise his score enough to avoid ruining his group's schedule, or will he be doomed to repeat high school for all eternity? If there is a God out there, please let Tamaki and Iori (and me) pass their exams!!
Relationships: Izumi Iori & Yotsuba Tamaki
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	An Almond Fueled War Against The Prospect of Eternal High School

**Author's Note:**

> potential trigger warning: references to what could be interpreted as suicide. it is not mentioned outright and there is no suicide in the fic. no one dies, it's a happy ending!

Sheets of gold dancing as they escape the arms of their sturdy mothers often symbolise the fleeting nature of time, marking the start of the end of the year, but for one specific student on this cold, autumn day, the falling leaves were a reminder of the dreaded obstacle he would have to overcome in the coming weeks.

“Oi Yotsuba, don’t doze off!” The teacher shouted, whacking Tamaki on the head with the villainous novel they were studying. Tamaki yawned and sat up, putting the nib of his pen on the blank sheet of paper he had used as a pillow. The lesson was reaching its end, yet he still had not written anything. He sighed and turned to the window again, wishing he was out there with the class running a marathon.

“All of the topics covered today will be on your test next week. Oh, and, anyone who gets below 80 in any of them will have to take remedial classes or possibly retake the year.”

There were groans and loud outbursts of “What?”s throughout the class.

Those words rudely awoke Tamaki from his daydreams with a brick. So far, the highest he had got in his exams was 60, and that was only because he actually read some of the questions. He was smart, but he didn’t get along well with school and exams, preferring to just guess the answers and using the rest of the time to sleep, thus his results were never the best. Judging from these past tests, he would have to take remedial classes, but he didn’t want that. The remedial classes would clash with his schedule which would ruin things for the other members. Retaking the year would be the worst scenario. He sincerely hoped his teacher was joking about that part, but from the devilish grin on his face, it looked as if he was serious. Tamaki looked down once more at the sheet of paper with a single dot on the first line and regretted not taking better notes.

As soon as class ended, Tamaki jumped up and poked Iori in the back. Iori turned around, confused as to what Tamaki could want so soon after class had ended.

“Iorin, teach me everything we learnt this year!”

“No,” Iori’s rejection was swift, but not enough to critically damage Tamaki.

“Lend me your notes!”

“No.”

“Please!”

“No.”

“Iorin, why are you so mean?”

“If you had paid attention in class, maybe you wouldn’t be in this dilemma.”

“I’ll do it from now on, I promise! Just this one, please teach me!” Iori sighed and finally gave in.

* * *

At the dorms, the two sat down at the dining table. Iori took his notes out from his bag; he had a notebook for each subject. All of his books and his notes were colour coded and kept in a neat, methodical order.

“Which subject is your weakest?”

“Uhhh… Maths?”

Iori opened the yellow notebook and wrote a few practice questions on another notebook he kept exclusively for practice. He gave the questions to Tamaki who painstakingly stared at the first question. He wrote a number down with his pencil, rubbed it out, rewrote the same number, rubbed it out again and repeated the process multiple times. Iori had started to lose his patience and after the sixth time, Tamaki wrote “21” and took the notebook from him.

“Do you have any idea what to do?”

“I know I have to use this formula and then I can substitute the numbers in but…”

“But what?”

“The answer I got doesn’t seem right.”

Iori looked at the sheet again in confusion, “you didn’t write anything?”

“Yup, I did it all in my head!”

“Write it down and I’ll check.”

Tamaki nodded and wrote his method down. Iori watched in awe as Tamaki gracefully answered the question in a few steps and efficiently got to an answer, despite how messy it was. Tamaki gave him the sheet and Iori carefully checked each step. The method was perfect, and all the steps were correct, yet the answer was wrong. He looked again at each of the individual numbers, comparing them to the original equation.

“Hmm… Ah, over here, you wrote 3x + 4x was 12x. If you fix that, it should give the correct answer.”

Tamaki quickly corrected his work and grinned, “I got it!”

“That’s good, now try the next one. And please write it down.”

Tamaki made quick work of the second question but once again, he quickly hit a dead end.

“It keeps coming up with maths error...”

“That’s odd, there’s definitely an answer.”

The two looked down at the solution, puzzled. Iori was amazed at how short Tamaki had made the question. He used a method that wasn’t taught, but it served as a useful shortcut and even gave less room for error. Tamaki acted like he was an idiot, but perhaps his intellect was just hidden behind a wall of stupid mistakes and hasty thinking.

“Hold on, I realised what it was,” Tamaki said, “I wrote 2 when it should be 1… Yeah, that looks better now.” He moved on to the next question, writing the answer down first and then filling in the blank space with his method.

“Write the method first!!”

Tamaki had finally reached the final question. So far, he had made quick work of the questions that Iori had created and would have gotten full marks if it weren’t for his avoidable errors. However, Tamaki was getting better at spotting his mistakes and by the time he reached the last few, he didn’t need Iori to check the solutions. But to Iori’s surprise, the last question was taking Tamaki an awfully long time and at least two pages of working out.

“I don’t think this is solvable…” Tamaki dispiritedly grumbled. Iori looked at the question and then at what Tamaki had written.

“What’s the formula?” Iori asked.

“64 = 4y2 \+ 33z .”

“I think you misread the last part.”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, it’s only 32z…” Tamaki sighed and solved the equation. Once he was done, he looked at Iori.

“If you were more careful, you could easily get full marks.”

“How do I be more careful?”

“Slow down and write out every step methodically.”

“But I can’t write any slower!”

“You need to!”

“I don’t want to!”

“Tamaki, Iori, are you studying?” The two nodded.

“Nagicchi, you know English, right?” Tamaki asked, pushing his maths work to the side.

“Oh yes, it was one of my first languages!”

“Teach us!” Iori and Tamaki asked in unison. Nagi sat down and flipped through Iori’s notes.

“What’s this? Nobody speaks English like this!” He exclaimed, Iori and Tamaki looked at him in confusion, “this is too awkward, it’s painful!”

“What if you only speak to us in English from now on and we have to reply in English?” Iori suggested. Nagi put the notebook down and nodded.

“ _Yes, that is a good idea!_ ”

Iori and Tamaki stared vacantly at him and he repeated what he said more slowly.

“ _I will try my best,_ ” Iori replied, awkwardly tripping over the pronunciation.

Nagi smiled softly, “ _Very good, Iori! Tamaki, do you need any help with anything?_ ”

“ _No, I am… fine,_ ” Tamaki replied.

“ _Okay, call me if you need anything!_ ” Nagi said, returning to his room. Iori and Tamaki looked at the notebooks and decided to move on to literature. Tamaki groaned while trying to remember what the book was about.

“Ah! How nostalgic, I liked that book!”

“Rikkun, you read this?”

“Yup! It’s very interesting!”

“Nanase-san, are you 50?”

“Why? I thought it was good, the way the characters interact and develop is quite intriguing, and the way the author subtly comments on society is ahead of its times!” Riku’s eyes were sparkling as he talked about the book. Iori and Tamaki listened carefully, with Iori making sarcastic comments every so often. Tamaki felt that he was finally understanding the book and even began to understand why Riku found it so interesting.

Once Riku had finished his mini-lecture, Tamaki asked him a bit about his interpretation of the ambiguous character of Sensei. Iori also asked a few questions about the narrator and they passionately debated about the themes of the novel.

“Ah, I almost forgot, I said I’d meet the manager!” Riku said, panicking. He quickly put his shoes and jacket and ran to the door. “Good luck!”

“Thank you!” The two replied and waved him off.

“Let’s stop there for today, it’s getting rather late,” Iori said, packing his books away. The two got dressed and spent the rest of the night self-studying in their rooms. Tamaki found it difficult at first, but he quickly got the hang of the way the questions were structured, and the techniques required.

* * *

He went to bed later than usual and thus was even harder to wake up the next morning. Sougo begged and threatened, shook and soaked and finally Tamaki was awake. In class, he tried his hardest to take notes, but he couldn’t keep up with the fast paces of his teachers. At lunch, he met up with Iori on the roof of the school, and they shared the homecooked bentos Mitsuki had made.

“Iorin, how do you take notes in class?” Tamaki asked, shaking a carton of orange juice. Iori choked on his rice and started coughing.

“You… really are serious…” Iori commented, coughing multiple times.

“I don’t want to trouble everyone,” Tamaki replied.

“I see,” Iori put his bento down and took a notebook out from his bag.

“Not everything the teacher says is necessary, first listen to what they are saying and then write down any points that you think are important or that the teacher mentioned you need to know,” Tamaki nodded, writing something down on a notebook he had picked up from under the pile of clothes in his room. Iori explained a bit more about formatting and memorisation tricks while Tamaki kept writing. When Iori had finished talking, Tamaki handed him his notebook.

“So, like this?” He asked showing Iori his notes.

“Are you a genius by any chance?”

Tamaki’s notes were perfect, they were structured in a way that made them easy to understand and had everything essential, summarised down to the T. The only downfall was the messy handwriting and the large doodle of Kinako in the margins.

“Your notes are amazing.” Iori finally said after a minute or two.

“It’s thanks to you!”

They ate their lunches while chatting about school and about home. When the bell finally rang, they went back to their class. Tamaki tried taking notes the way Iori had suggested and noticed that he was able to keep up with the teacher.

“Yotsuba, you better not sleep today!” The literature teacher joked as he took the register. He began the class and decided to ask Tamaki a question about the novel, knowing full well that Tamaki was always paying the least attention. He was shocked, to say the least, when Tamaki answered with more than three words and offered an interpretation he hadn’t thought of before.

“What did you do with the real Yotsuba?” The teacher asked, almost dropping the stick of chalk in his hand.

“Hehehe, didn’t expect that, did you?” Tamaki grinned. The teacher walked towards him and slapped him across the head with the book, “ouch! What was that for?”

“So, it’s not a dream…” he sighed.

“Of course, it isn’t!” Tamaki shouted, rubbing the back of his head.

“Class is cancelled until I recover from the shock,” the teacher muttered, shuffling out of the door.

The class watched in confusion but when they saw that he really had left they began cheering and packing their bags, some of them even thanking Tamaki. A short, dark-haired girl wearing thick spectacles was the first to leave the classroom. The class watched the door through which she had left, it was unsettlingly quiet.

A bone-chilling scream filled the silent school. Tamaki and Iori ran out of the classroom and saw her sitting in the middle of the corridor. Students from the nearby classes had started to crowd by the doors, ignoring their teacher’s pleas for them to return to class.

“What’s happen?” A boy asked from the classroom.

“It’s the teacher… He’s… He’s…” the girl stuttered, pointing down the corridor. There was a person leaning out of the window. Tamaki approached it.

“What are you doing, Sensei?” He asked, the body turned its head towards him.

“I was seeing if jumping from the window would wake me up from this nightmare.”

“It’s the ground floor…”

“Oh.”

The teacher stood back up and laughed.

“Let’s get back to class, shall we?”

He glared at the students crowded around the scenes and they silently turned around and returned to their own classrooms. The teacher returned to his classroom and continued the lesson as if nothing had happened.

* * *

After school Tamaki and Iori walked back to the dorms together. They sat at opposite ends of the dining table and prepared their notes.

“Let’s start with History.”

“Did I hear History?” Yamato asked from the sofa in the living room. Before they had time to blink he was standing next to Iori, reading his notes over his shoulder.

“Nikaido-san?!”

“Yama-san, so cool!”

“Ah, this sure is nostalgic! How about you let Nii-chan teach you instead, Tama?”

Tamaki nodded eagerly. Yamato snatched Iori’s notebook from his hands and flipped through the pages.

“Hey—” Iori protested but Yamato jumped too far back for him to reach.

“Oi, Mitsu come here a sec!”

“On it!” Mitsuki shouted from the living room and once again, before Tamaki and Iori had time to blink, he was standing next to Yamato and reading through Iori’s notes.

“Nii-san, you too?!”

“Mikki, so cool!”

“He, he! We’re doing that?” Mitsuki said.

“Yup, we’re doing that,” Yamato replied.

“What exactly is that?” Iori asked, exasperatedly reaching for his notebook.

“History of Japan, of course!” The duo replied in unison.

About a quarter of the way through Mitsuki and Yamato’s extremely abridged History crammer, Nagi walked into the kitchen to make himself a drink.

“It’s Europe!” Mitsuki shouted. Without missing a beat, Yamato continued the narration.

“No, they’re not here to take over, they just wanna sell some shit like clocks, and guns, and...”

“Jesus~!” Nagi finished, now joining in on the lesson.

Iori looked exhausted once they had done, but Tamaki, on the other hand, was grinning.

“That was amazing!” He cheered, clapping as the trio bowed.

“Tell us when you start world history, it’ll be a real treat!” Yamato gloated, pushing his glasses up.

“Please no,” Iori groaned, face down on the table.

“Aww Iori, it wasn’t that bad!” Mitsuki said, patting him on the back.

“Anyways, we’ll leave you to it now, good luck!” Yamato said, waving.

“Don’t work too hard!” Mitsuki added.

“ _You can do it!_ ” Nagi completed.

The trio left, and the room became quiet again. Iori and Tamaki decided to work through the sheets they had been given. They occasionally asked each other questions and swapped notes (although Tamaki didn’t have very many to offer). The clock ticked, time passed at a slower pace than usual as the two boys tried their hardest to learn the hundreds of facts and formulas they would need for their exams.

* * *

“Iori-kun, Tamaki-kun, dinner’s ready!“ Sougo called from the kitchen, carrying a pile of plates.

“Osaka-san I’ll help you after I move my books!” Iori said, quickly shoving his notebooks into his bag. Tamaki picked up his novel and walked to the tv, his head still in the book. He put his pencil down on the coffee table but kept reading.

“Tamaki-kun can you help with the cutlery?” Sougo asked, turning the stove off.

“Yeah, one sec!” Tamaki replied, still reading. Sougo sighed and decided it would be faster if he just did it himself. A few minutes later and the rest of the members had sat down on the table.

“Whoa, its curry rice!” Mitsuki exclaimed.

“You didn’t add any Tabasco, right?” Yamato asked, suspiciously inspecting the curry.

“Should I?” Sougo asked, taking a huge bottle of the dreaded sauce out from god knows where.

“Please don’t!” Riku shouted. The rest nervously watched as Sougo placed the bottle on the table. He sat down and noticed that the spot where Tamaki usually sat was empty.

“Tamaki-kun, the food will be cold!” He called, noticing that Tamaki was standing in the middle of the living room, looking down.

“What is he doing?” Iori sighed. Sougo got up and approached him.

“Tamaki-kun?”

“Hmm…”

“Everyone is waiting for you, come on!”

“Yeah, one sec…”

Sougo sighed deeply. He picked up the thing to his left and lightly tapped Tamaki’s shoulder.

“Tamaki-kun,” he said, all known human emotion devoid from his voice.

“Yeah?” Tamaki asked, fearfully turning around.

“Put the book down and come to the dining table. Now.” Sougo lifted the object in his hands with murderous intent. Tamaki screamed, letting go of the book and taking a step back.

“Sou put the plant down!” Yamato shouted, running in between the pair.

“You’ll kill him, Sougo-san!” Riku followed, tightly hugging Sougo’s waist to try and pull him away.

“Sougo, fighting is not good!” Nagi added, trying to take the plant pot away from Sougo.

Eventually, he calmed down and the four sat back down. Everyone watched Sougo’s actions carefully, worried he might snap again. Dinner passed without any other major events and everyone went back to doing whatever they needed to complete by the end of the day.

* * *

Sougo was in the kitchen, waiting for the kettle to boil so that he could have some coffee.

“Tamaki-kun, do you want a drink?”

There was no reply. Sougo went to his room and knocked on the door. He pushed it open and saw Tamaki sat at his desk, silently working in his dark bedroom. Sougo turned the lights on and shut the curtains.

“Do you want a drink?” He asked again.

Tamaki didn’t reply.

Sougo quietly left the room and returned to the whistling kettle. He took another mug out of the cupboard and boiled some milk in a pan with a few strands of saffron. He had learnt the recipe from his uncle who made it for him on the day of an important exam when he was young. Since then, it had become a ritual for Sougo to drink Saffron Milk when he was studying, and he hoped that it would be useful for Tamaki.

Once the milk had boiled and turned yellow, he poured the drink into a large mug and took it to Tamaki’s room.

“Tamaki-kun?”

“Mmm…”

“Drink this, and go to sleep soon, it’s almost midnight.” Sougo softly placed the mug on his desk, away from the notebook Tamaki was reading from.

“Thanks…” Tamaki muttered. He picked up the mug and took a sip, “AGHHH MY TONGUE!!”

“I just made it!” Sougo said, taking the mug from him and putting it back on the desk.

“How would I know?” Tamaki shouted, fanning his mouth with his hands.

“Should I get some water?”

“Nah, it's fine now.” Tamaki picked up the mug again and took another large sip, “IT’S STILL HOT!!”

“Obviously! Hold on, I’ll make it colder.”

He took the mug back to the kitchen and poured the drink into the pan. He swirled the drink wound in the pan skilfully and then poured the drink back into the mug. He then took it back to Tamaki’s room. Tamaki cautiously took a sip.

“Delicious!” He exclaimed, gulping the drink down.

“Isn’t it?” Sougo replied, smiling. Tamaki put the mug down on the table and stretched.

“I’m fired up!” He shouted opening his notebook.

“Make sure to sleep soon!” Sougo said, taking the empty mug with him as he left. Tamaki nodded.

“Goodnight, Sou-chan!”

“Goodnight!”

Sougo hummed as he washed the dishes. The change Tamaki showed was sudden, but it was a positive change and he was glad. Sougo truly believed that Tamaki could do anything if he put his mind to it. He was proud that Tamaki decided to take the initiative for once. Banri was worried about the exams, but if he saw Tamaki now his worries would be dissipated in a second.

* * *

The weeks passed quickly. Tamaki and Iori studied together before dinner and then studied alone afterwards during the weekdays, and on the weekends, they did a mass review of everything that may be on the exam. The other members helped the two in their own ways, by explaining their respective subjects. Every night Sougo made a large mug of Saffron milk to Tamaki’s room and the two chatted about their days. Soon enough it was the week of exams. The members all gathered to wish Tamaki and Iori luck on the morning of the first exam.

“My uncle said almonds help with memory!” Sougo said, holding a huge bowl.

“Sou, don’t you think that’s a bit too any?” Yamato laughed.

“Really? This was all the store had, I was worried they wouldn’t be enough…”

“Is that so…” Yamato felt sorry for the poor cashier who had to scan the presumably hundreds of packets of almonds. He could only imagine how confused they must have been.

“ _We can make almond cake!”_ Nagi said, taking one out of the bowl and inspecting it.

“ _I want almond pudding!”_ Tamaki replied, eating a handful of almonds.

“ _Almond cookies are good too,”_ Iori added.

“Why are you all speaking in English?” Riku asked, looking confused.

“Nanase-san, we’re practising for our exam.”

“ _Riku, why don’t you try?”_

“ _No, no, my English very bad...”_

“ _Riku, that was almost perfect_!” Nagi encouraged, Riku thanked him. Sougo pushed the bowl towards Iori and Tamaki.

“I’m alright Osaka-san.” Iori declined politely, but when he saw the glint in Sougo’s eyes, he shakily reached for the bowl and picked an almond. Tamaki grabbed another handful and tossed them in his mouth. Mitsuki gave the two their bentos and the members waved as the two left, shouting various chants of good luck.

The first exam was chemistry, and both boys were feeling rather confident. They made their way to class, with the promise to discuss the exam on the roof at lunch.

* * *

“IORIN THAT TEST WAS IMPOSSIBLE!” Tamaki shouted, slumping onto the floor. Iori sighed dejectedly.

“I don’t think it was for us…” He looked as if his soul had left during the exam and all that remained was the empty vessel of flesh that tied him to the universe.

Tamaki was lying face down, groaning in pain as he tried to revive the brain cells that had committed mass suicide after reading the first question. After ten or so minutes, the two had recovered enough to eat. Tamaki cautiously opened the lid and screamed.

“What’s wrong?” Iori asked, opening his own bento. The lid fell from his hand and his mouth gaped in horror.

“ALMOND RICE, ALMOND OMELETTE, ALMOND CHICKEN, ALMOND SALAD, ALMOND SOUP… IS THERE ANYTHING THAT ISN’T ALMOND?” Tamaki shouted.

“Even our drinks are almond…” Iori sighed, putting the large flask which usually contained tea down. The two sighed.

“It’s tasty, but it’s too much almond, Sou-chan…” Tamaki said, chewing the omelette roll that had been stuffed with as much almond as physically possible.

“The almond rice is surprisingly subtle… I was expecting it to be… a bit spicier…” Iori added. The two ate their strange meal, wishing that the almond would actually deliver on its promise of improved memory.

* * *

On the way home, the two stopped off at the convenience store to reward themselves for getting through the papers. As they approached the till, Tamaki groaned.

“Oh god no,” Iori cursed under his breath. One of the workers was stocking an empty shelf with packets of almonds from a cardboard box. Just the sight of almonds was enough to make them feel nauseated. They quickly walked past, paid, and continued on their way home.

As they opened the door, they smelt something delicious. Tamaki’s stomach rumbled as he took off his shoes. He saw Mitsuki in the kitchen.

“Ah, welcome home! We’re having soba today!” Mitsuki said, taking a plate out of the cupboard. A familiar figure was stood in front of the stove.

“Gakkun!”

“Yo,” Gaku was holding a small tasting bowl in his hand. He gracefully took a sip, “Ahhhh, it’s almost ready!”

“Are Kujou-san and Tsunashi-san also here?” Iori asked, looking around.

“Tenn said he’d come later since he has a photoshoot but Ryuu is with Nikaido and Osaka.”

“I see,” Iori put his bag down on the dining table and sat on one of the stools.

“How were your exams?”

“Mikki…. Chemistry was impossible…” Tamaki muttered, his head down on the table.

“Please don’t remind me,” Iori said, having flashbacks of the exam in which he learnt that regardless of how much he had studied, he would never have been prepared enough.

“It can’t have been that bad,” Mitsuki laughed, putting a bowl down.

“The teacher cried when someone asked him about the first question,” Tamaki replied, Mitsuki thanked whatever gods there were for allowing him to graduate when exams were only slightly difficult if you skipped the whole year.

“The second exam was much easier,” Iori said after a while.

“Japanese History, right?” Mitsuki asked, Tamaki nodded.

“The soba will be ready in ten minutes so why don’t you two go freshen up? Leave setting up the table to me and Izumi-ani.” Gaku said, putting the lid on the pan. Tamaki and Iori went to their rooms and changed their clothes. When they returned to the main area the table was all set up and everyone was starting to gather.

“Sou-chan, Ryuu-aniki!” Tamaki called, waving.

“Tamaki-kun, good evening!” Ryuu greeted, ruffling his hair out of habit. Tamaki grinned.

“Sou-chan, you made way too much almond, I thought I was going to become one!”

“I was going to make an almond dish for dinner tonight but Yamato-san and Nagi-kun said I was banned from the kitchen and made me watch an anime with them and Tsunashi-san.”

“Kotaro was talking about the anime before and now I understand why he likes it so much!”

“I want to watch it too!”

Iori, on the other hand, had noticed Riku and Tenn standing near the doorway. He approached the two.

“Good evening, Kujou-san,” he said coldly standing next to Riku.

“Izumi Iori, good evening,” Tenn replied, returning Iori’s glare.

“Iori, Tenn-nii!” Riku said, trying to diffuse the tension. The other two turned to him with the most angelic smiles.

“Pffttt, what’s with them!!!” Yamato laughed, he was sitting on the sofa, watching the trio.

“Nikaido, you’ll blow our cover!” Gaku half-shouted, half-whispered. He was sitting next to Yamato, also watching.

The three seemed not to have noticed and Gaku and Yamoto were finding it extremely difficult to hold their laughter in. Riku sat down leaving one seat on each side empty. Iori and Tenn glared at each other as they sat down, but thankfully, their beloved Riku in the middle made them quickly forget their enmity. Everyone else gradually sat down while Gaku and the Pythag Trio served the delicious-looking soba.

* * *

The next two weeks passed in a similar, rather uneventful manner. Iori and Tamaki were seen off by their members like soldiers going to war. They fought hard in their exams and recovered at lunch. Thankfully, the number of almond dishes decreased and before they knew it, they were eating their last supper.

“This is the end, huh?”

“Just Maths and Literature to go…”

“We’ve done all we can, hopefully, it will pay off.”

The pair sighed and ate their meal in silence.

“AGH! IT’S AN ALMOND!”

“Not again…”

“Iorin, gimme a drink! Quick!”

A strange yellow liquid flowed out of the flask, Tamaki gulped it down and then screamed.

“SO HOT!!”

“Here,” Iori opened a water bottle and passed it to Tamaki, who drank it all in less than a second.

“Sou-chan… why…”

“I don’t think I can ever look at an almond again,” Iori sighed, picking up a bit of rice.

* * *

“YES!! IT’S OVER!!” Tamaki jumped up from his desk just as the bell rang.

“Oi, Yotsuba! The bell doesn’t dismiss you, I do!”

“Sorry…” Tamaki sat back down, grinning to himself.

“Izumi, do you mind collecting the exam papers?”

“Of course.”

“Yotsuba, you can collect the booklets, make sure they’re all on the same page and facing the same direction.”

“Yes…”

The two diligently completed their task, grateful for the distraction.

“When do we get our results?” The girl who had screamed her throat out only two weeks ago asked.

“Most of the exams have already been marked, and everyone who missed them have already caught up so… Monday?”

“That’s so soon!”

“Good luck trying to enjoy your weekends,” the teacher laughed cruelly, “you all better start praying that you got above 80 on all your exams or… we’ll be stuck together forever!”

Leaving those evil words to stew in the minds of his students, the teacher left, humming the jaws theme to himself.

“Iorin…”

“We’ll be ok… hopefully…”

The two dejectedly trudged back home, praying to whatever god there may be for his mercy.

* * *

Sougo stretched as he looked at the clock, it was almost midnight and he hadn’t seen Tamaki since Friday. Tomorrow was the day their fates would be decided. Iori had gone from seeming perfectly fine to randomly opening his chemistry textbook and sighing dejectedly. Tamaki had taped a sign on his door telling everyone to not enter his room and to leave meals outside his door. Sougo was worried, what if Tamaki was…

He shook his head, trying to dismiss the thought but he couldn’t ease his anxiety. Steeling his nerves, he headed to Tamaki’s room to check up on him.

“Huh?”

The meal Mitsuki had prepared was still outside the door. It hadn’t been touched at all, even though it had been at least 14 hours since Tamaki had last eaten.

“Tamaki-kun, are you ok?” Sougo cautiously knocked on the door but there was no reply. He tried knocking harder this time but was met with silence.

“Oh, Sou? What’s wrong?” Yamato asked, having just finished bathing.

“Tamaki hasn’t left his room since he got home from school on Friday and he hasn’t eaten dinner either, so I was checking up on him.”

“Oi, oi, I hope he’s not thinking of doing something stupid…”

“What if he ran away? Or worse…” Sougo shuddered at the thought, “Yamato-san…”

“Don’t worry, let Nii-chan handle it!” Yamato smiled, looking oddly reassuring for once.

“Oi Tama, I’m coming in!”

The door opened with ease, but the two were not prepared for what was inside.

The room was dark, but from what they could see, all of the available surface area had been covered in notes.

“Hey, isn’t this chemistry? I don’t remember doing this in high school…” Yamato commented, picking a sheet up from the floor.

“And this is one of the millennium problems…” Sougo added, studying the notes on the back of the door, “he solved it?”

“That genius… but where is he…”

“Do you think he’s there?” Sougo pointed at the thing slumped over the desk.

“No way right… He’s not moving…”

The two cautiously approached Tamaki, prepared for the worst.

“…Zzzz Ousama… Purin….”

“Huh?”

“He’s sleeping?”

Sougo and Yamoto looked at each other in confusion, but there was no doubt that the boy was sleeping face down on his desk, drooling all over his notes with his pen still in his hand.

“Isn’t that part of the millennium problem set? Tama, get up those are worth a million dollars!”

“Just… 5 more minutes…”

Yamato was about to shake the poor boy awake when an alarm started ringing from under his bed. Tamaki jerked up and started scribbling something down.

“Tamaki-kun?”

“What is it Sou-chan, I’m busy…” Tamaki didn’t even turn around as he spoke and continued to write.

A second passed, Yamato and Sougo unsure what to say.

“Wait… Sou-chan? Yama-san?”

“He’s back, thank goodness!”

“Tamaki-kun, what were you doing?”

“I can’t change my exam result so I figured I should at least revise for my results.”

Yamato burst out laughing, slapping both Tamaki and Sougo on the backs with almost enough force to make them fall over.

“You’re really something Tama!” he grinned, wiping a tear from his eyes, “so, why study such complicated topics?”

“What are you talking about, Yama-san? They were easy.”

Yamato stopped laughing.

A chilly breeze filled the room as Yamato and Sougo tried to process what Tamaki had just said. The word _easy_ kept echoing in their minds, reminding them of the difference between a high school prodigy and an ordinary adult.

“He really is a genius,” Yamato said, leaving the room with his spirit shattered.

“Yamato-san!”

“Just kidding,” Yamato teased, reappearing as if he hadn’t just left looking like a broken husk of a man, “y’know, each of those problems is worth a million dollars, if you submitted your solutions we’d be rich!”

“No way, it’s too much effort!”

“Too much effort he says…”

“If Tamaki-kun doesn’t want to then we can’t force him,” Sougo said in a resigned tone, “but we’re tight on money so we may have to cut on our snack budget, perhaps even buy less Ousama Purins…”

“I’LL DO IT! I’LL SUBMIT THEM!”

“Sou, you’re a monster…”

“I do my best.”

Yamato shuddered, reminding himself once more not to get on Sou’s bad side.

* * *

Finally, the day had arrived. Tamaki and Iori nodded in silent understanding and put their shoes on, prepared to face any obstacle. Cheered on by their precious members, they headed to their final resting place and awaited judgement for their sins.

Overall, Iori had done a lot better than he had expected, getting a perfect score in English, History and Literature. Tamaki had done pretty well too, just barely scraping an 80 in most of his papers, but nothing above 90. The two grimaced as they waited for the final paper to be handed back: The Dreaded Chemistry Exam from Hell.

“Now this Chemistry paper was written by one of our alumni, who is a renowned professor at Harvard, so we weren’t expecting you to do well. In fact, not a single one of you got above 30.”

The class reacted in shock, were they all going to have to retake the year?

“Wait… someone got a perfect score?” the teacher muttered, almost dropping the papers.

“No way…” “It has to be Izumi, right?” “Impossible…” The class chattered under their breaths, terrified that one of their own would betray them like this.

“No…” the teacher started, his hands shaking. He walked towards Iori who had a similar shocked expression on his face.

The class went silent, waiting for the teacher to announce the name of their forsaken enemy.

“The person who got full marks is… Yotsuba Tamaki…”

“Huh?” The class erupted, trying to work out how the person who slept through every lesson could have scored that high.

“He must have cheated!” A student shouted, and the class added their statements in agreement.

“No, there’s no way he could cheat… Unless he’s a fake…” the teacher continued to mutter in disbelief while shakingly handing Tamaki his paper.

Meanwhile, Tamaki had ascended to the spiritual realm. Ever since the teacher had mentioned nobody getting over 30, he had started mentally rehearsing his apologies and preparing for everyone’s disappointment. When the teacher pushed his paper into his face, he struggled to read his mark, only seeing the 00. It was Iori who pulled him out of his trance with a resigned,

“Yotsuba-san, you betrayed me…”

Tamaki looked at his paper again and noticed the 100.

“This must be a mistake…”

“They marked it three times. All the teachers gathered to see this paper, there’s no way it’s wrong.”

Tamaki grabbed his exam with a shaky hand and grinned.

“I DID IT! I WON’T HAVE TO TAKE EXTRA CLASSES OR REPEAT THE YEAR!!”

The class cheered, proud that at least one of them had escaped their fate. They were prepared for whatever hell the teacher would throw them into. If at least one of them had escaped, they would have a chance to survive as well.

“Oh that?” the teacher asked, having recovered, “I was only joking about that, there’s no way we’d do that after setting such a fiendishly difficult exam!”

Dead silence.

“Shimizu, do you mind?”

A tall girl stood up and left the classroom. She shut the door and locked it, standing guard outside, while the rest of the class circled around the teacher, blocking off his escape.

“You’re gonna pay for making us suffer, sensei!”

“All of us together are going to combine our powers and tickle you to death!”

“You better be prepared, we won’t let you off easy!”

It is said that the poor teacher’s screams could be heard throughout the whole school and served as a grim reminder to all the teachers in the world to not mess with their students, especially when it came to exams.

**Author's Note:**

> another fic from literal centuries ago. if it changes styles halfway it's because it was only half-written when i found it... no im not sort of projecting on tamaki, although writing it i couldn't help but think "big mood". some of this was inspired by my irl antics... like revising chemistry for gcse results day... but no way near as complicated as tamaki... 
> 
> the almonds and saffron milk are probably a south asian thing but i get the vibes that sougo's uncle knew a lot abut other cultures which is why he knew about it... i read about exam culture once, and there's a lot of weird stuff but being made to eat those dry almonds has somehow become a precious memory.
> 
> once again there wasn't really a point to this fic but it was fun to write so i hope you enjoyed reading it!!


End file.
